Marc: Hi, this is Marc David with NoBullBodybuilding.com, and I’ve got something alittle bit exciting to tell you because I’ve got somebody on the line who’s actually a fitness expert. Craig Ballantyne is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and writes forMen’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maxim Fitness, Muscles and Fitness Hers and Oxygen magazines. His trademark Turbulence Training for Fat Loss Workouts have been featured multiple times inMen’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle and get lean in 45, in less than 45 minutes three times per week.
But more important is the simple fact that Craig is an industry expert. He’s actually certified in the industry, recognized by his peers and other well known gurus who don’t just promote everybody who comes along. Now, you’re going to ask me why you should care. Because in the age of the Internet where it levels the playing field, making everybody seem equal, you need to realize that not everybody actually is equal. Would you take your car to just anybody to work on? Or is the answer obviously that you take it to a qualified mechanic or personal friend that you knew had the experience? The same thing to be said here.
You see newsletters all day long with the new name of the month who’s the expert, but right now on this call, I’ve got a real certified pro who’s qualified to answer the questions I’m about to ask. It might seem the playing field is level, folks, but that’s an illusion. Let me welcome Craig Ballantyne, the author of Turbulence Training to this call. Welcome to my call, Craig.
Craig: Thank you very much, Marc.Marc: Now before I jump into this, some of these questions might be a little long. You can answer them however you want to answer them. You can be short, you can even say pass, and I’ll skip, but I’m really looking to do here is just figure out what your take is on a sound aerobics fitness program and some of these cardio free diets or exercise free programs along with all the studies I’ve been seeing lately where weight training and exercisedoesn’t seem to make a difference, and then you know, the rewrites ofcardio doesn’t seem to play any role in fat loss. I’m really trying to figure out what your take is on that is. So, that’s the purpose of the call.
Craig: Cool.Marc: So, the first question is I’ve heard about a few programs that advocate doing no cardio whatsoever. The descriptions are along the lines of cardiovascular workouts do burn a few calories, but far fewer than you think, and the more cardio you do, the hungrier you feel, and only this cardio fail to help you lose weight, but it kills. It kills your time, your energy, your joints and your motivation. You burn a few measly calories, but then you eat twice as many afterwards. The result, weight gain and lots of it, so with that one, do you really think cardio is a waste of your time?
Craig: Well, I mean, it might be if you’re doing it and you’re not getting any results then you’re probably better off spending some time doing something else. I know that I’ve had more thanone, usually it’s a woman, but more than one person write in and they tell me about how much cardio they’re doing. Like one woman was doing seven hours of cardio and not getting any results, so you know, the question is what’s next? What are you going to do?
job and do more cardio?
You going to quit your So obviously for this “You going to quit your job and do more cardio?” – Craig Ballantyne
Other ways, there’s two other ways that it can be a waste o f their time and one of them is if you’re doing it, you’re ending up injured from overuse that’s clearly not a good use of your time, and if you can be getting more results in less time doing something else, then again, you know, if you want to use a different phrase than waste of your time, that’s fine, but it’s clearly not the best use.
On the other hand, if you’re getting great results and you don’t suffer from a lack of time, then obviously cardio is not a waste of your time. I mean, most of this cardio controversy can be answered with some basic common sense. I mean, the other reason that it’s not a waste of your time is if you truly love doing it and you’re doing it healthfully and you’re not obsessed with it. If it’s contributing to your progress and you know, there isn’t something else you should be doing with your time, then, no, it’s not a waste of your time.
But to me, personally, I believe that it is relatively inefficient for the results that most people are going after, but it’s not going to kill you and certainly not going tomake you fat, which I’ve read in some other writings. I like to think I’m a relatively moderate person with a bit of common sense here, and so, there are answers that can be both yes and no, that for some people it’s going to be a waste of their time, and for others that it’s not a waste of time.
Marc: Well, with that, do you have to sacrifice your joints for your heart?Craig: Absolutely not. The thing is as much credit as we give to cardiovascular exercise for improving cardiovascular health;it’s probably not the most important thing. I mean, there’s so many other ways to improve your cardiovascular health. I mean, the basics are don’t smoke, don’t drink excessively, don’t be overweight and don’t eat certain foods like trans fats; and on the other hand, do be active in activity you enjoy. Don’t be stressed out, so make sure that you have some stress reduction tactics. Maintain a healthy body weight and eat the right foods, lots of healthy fats, protein, fruits and vegetables.
I mean, that’s a big, broad picture. I mean, if you think about the old people that you know that are in good health, I bet you a lot of them haven’t spent four, five hours a week doing cardiovascular training. They’ve been active, they’re probably very happy, good natured people, and they eat and live in moderation. So, I guess my answer is, again it’s very moderate there, and youcertainly don’t have to do cardiovascular, joint pounding exercise to live long and happy and healthy without cardiovascular problems.
And if you do too much cardiovascular training, it’s, in certain methods obviously, you can end up sacrificing your joints, and that’s one of the things that I refer to as the dark side of cardio. When I’ve been in gyms with a physiotherapy office in the back, who are the people going in there most of the time? People with overuse injuries, whether they’re desk workers with overuse injuries, whether they’re weight trainers with overuse injuries, more often than not, they’re endurance athletes with overuse injuries from spinning too much to running too much. There’s certainly, again it just comes down to common sense and having a professional look after your program, and you’ll end up with the most benefits with the least amount of risk.
Marc: Well, I think you’ve probably already answered this one, but I’ll just ask it again just in case, but does aerobic activity have to be extremely time consuming?
Craig: No, I don’t think I’ve covered that yet, and one thing is you do have to look at, you know, there’s a law of diminishing results. If I do 30 minutes of steady, say cardio, am I only getting half the results as a person who’s doing 60 minutes? No, that’s not true. And can I get a lot of cardiovascular benefits from doing interval training in shorter workouts? Definitely, so it doesn’t have to be excessively time consuming to improve your health.
Marc: That’s absolutely perfect which leads me to this next question. This one will be a little bit weird so, and it is supposed to be an absolutist statement, so I’m not putting in any words here that I didn’t actually hear. But one person said and I quote, “If you want to lose weight then you should never do cardiovascular exercise.”
Craig: Well, that’s obviously somebody taking something a little bit extreme there. On one hand, you’re going to have those people that are literally doing seven hours of cardio per week and not losing weight. Chances are there are a lot ofnutrition problems with that person’s program, but for some reason there are people that don’t respond to cardiovascular training.
On the other hand, I mean, there’s plenty, especially in young men, it’s very easy to get very lean with cardiovascular exercise. Body builders, I mean, how can you say that if you want to lose weight then you should never do cardiovascular exercise, and that just flies in the face of thousands of body builders and fitness models that have done a lot of cardiovascular exercise and achieved a very lean appearance. I mean, it’s certainly not stopping anybody from losing weight, or it’s certainly not stopping those people from losing weight. Maybe it’s stopping somebody else, butit’s certainly not stopping most people from losing weight.
That said, again, I don’t think it’s the most efficient way to lose body fat, and I know some of you other questions are going to probably address that, so, you know, obviously, I disagree with this person.
Marc: Ok. I sort of wanted just to put that one in there just because from my perspective, I think, Tom Venuto said it as well, but taking an absolutist view of anything, those are usually the people that he said you want to avoid. When people start using the words neverand when it’s an absolutist viewpoint, those are usually signs that there’s something wrong.
Craig: Well, I mean, that’s, in this day and age, if you’re not at the extreme you’re not standing up, so obviously some of those quotations, no matter what industry you’re in, obviously they’re set for a reason and that’s probably more business than results as far as the training goes.
Marc: True. So from a fat loss perspective, I can see why these programs, you know, make sense on that level. Basically, you build more muscle which in turn burns more fat, so your metabolism is increased, but in your professional experience, and this I think where the real meat of the call is going to come as far as people seeing a gem of wisdom. So, in your professional experience, what are the three keys to fat loss?
Craig: Well, the three physical keys are nutrition, that is number one and you know, I’m a guy who makes my living selling training programs, but I still admit that nutrition is more important than the training program. One way to look at it is that you cannot out train a poor diet. It doesn’t matter how good your training program is unless you’re an 18 year old guy, your nutrition can totally screw up a great program.
On the other hand, if you eat really well and stick to the right program, then you can, you stick to the right nutrition program, sorry, then you can have a less than optimal workout program and still get great results. So, I believe that nutrition trumps training so nutrition is number one and then strength training is number two and then interval training for me is number three.
But I also want to add a fourth factor which is not necessarily physical, but more mental and that is social support. A lot of people neglect having a social support group. If any of your listeners have a hard time staying motivated, or sticking to a program, maybe they still have the motivation but they just can’t stick to the program, a social support is incredibly important. If they can find anybody in any facet of their life that is supportive, whether it’s on the Internet in fat loss forums, whether it’s in person asa workout partner, whether it’s theirspouse, whether it’s their doctor, trainer or nutritionist, you can’t do this all by yourself. Most people can’t anyways, otherwise I think we’d have a greater success rate. So look for a form of social support. The best two sources are professional or someone that is also successfully losing weight. So, if you hang around people that are losing weight, you have a better chance of losing weight. And when I say losing weight, that’s interchangeable with body fat becausethat’s what we’re worried about.